


Haply I think on thee

by rthstewart



Series: Susan Joins The Rebels [2]
Category: Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canonical Character Death, F/M, Outtakes, The Problem of Susan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-27
Updated: 2020-10-27
Packaged: 2021-03-08 19:20:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,517
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27221857
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rthstewart/pseuds/rthstewart
Summary: What happens next -- outtake from Beweep My Outcast StateSusan Pevensie and the Rebel Alliance
Relationships: Obi-Wan Kenobi/Susan Pevensie
Series: Susan Joins The Rebels [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1987426
Comments: 21
Kudos: 101





	Haply I think on thee

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Syrena_of_the_lake](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Syrena_of_the_lake/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Beweep My Outcast State](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26151604) by [rthstewart](https://archiveofourown.org/users/rthstewart/pseuds/rthstewart). 



I had immense amounts of unwritten head canon for what happens after Susan leaves Tatooine in _Beweep My Outcast State_ and makes her way into Rebel Intelligence. It quite ran away with me in the same way that this pairing hit me right between the eyes. The following 1300 or so words made it into a preserved document, though not the story. Titles of both the main story and this outtake come from Sonnet 29.

For Syrena and everyone else on this rotten night.

* * *

When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes  
I all alone beweep my outcast state,  
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,  
And look upon myself, and curse my fate,  
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,  
Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,  
Desiring this man's art, and that man's scope,  
With what I most enjoy contented least;  
Yet in these thoughts my self almost despising,  
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,  
Like to the lark at break of day arising  
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate;  
For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings

Sonnet 29 by William Shakespeare

* * *

BBY

Obi-Wan expects the long-awaited summons to come at any time. He keeps an even closer watch on Luke. The boy is chafing under restrictions he does not understand and he's worried Luke may just throw up his hands in frustration and disappear. Anakin would have never survived under Owen and Beru's smothering worry for so long. He is certain Luke's next journey is starting very soon and, with it, the end of his own life on Tatooine.

For weeks, it has been growing in his mind and haunting his dreams. It's an unformed miasma of oppressive threat and danger with a thin sliver of hope that he chases after but can never grasp. Something terrible is approaching. He wakes that morning in a cold sweat and the dread certainty that something awful has happened somewhere.

He's sifting through the latest intelligence reports, cursing that Susan made the Rebel Intelligence codes so damned difficult, even as he grudgingly acknowledges that, as far as he knows, they've never been broken, either. They are all looking for something called the _Death Star_ which he hopes, but not really believes, is merely metaphorical.

The object of his current misery and deep admiration and affection suddenly bursts from one his comlinks. He hears Susan's distorted voice. "Meet me. If you can."

It's dire. That comlink, that channel, and that message all mean she's had to use the rings to get out of wherever she was and has to get back as urgently as possible. She's probably already gotten transport out of Anchorhead and isn't going to wait for him to take her to a bigger hub.

He's always cautious entering Anchorhead. Luke hangs about here and Obi-Wan tries to avoid being seen, always cultivating the persona of the crazy old hermit. Susan isn't at the fountain, so he retreats to a shaded corner, pulls his hood up and waits. There's a shuttle leaving in an hour at the dock but this is their usual rendezvous. Unless she's already gone, they will meet here.

A few minutes later, he first senses, and then sees Susan approach from across the crowded square. She's coming from the direction of the clinic, limping, with her arm in a sling and a bandage around her head. She's terrified.

There is no need for hand signals or meaningful looks. Their tradecraft, as Susan calls it, has been honed over many, many years. She limps painfully away, onto the side street off the square. He's rented a garage there and Susan keeps a cache of supplies for emergencies, when she's had to "ring-out" of a bad situation. After a few minutes of staring at nothing, he circles around the square and goes off toward the marketplace to come to the garage from the other direction. By the time he slips into the garage, Susan has deposited a pile of blood soaked rags that might have once included a shirt of his. She's in cleaner clothing and sitting on the floor, replacing the power pack on her nicely crafted bowcaster. Her hands are shaking so violently, she keeps dropping the pack; tears are running down her face.

He kneels beside her and gently touches the bandage wrapped about her head. "May I?"

She sniffs and nods.

He knows enough healing to competently mend the cuts and abrasions. "You don't have a concussion." Moving to her arm, he strengthens the bone that has already been set. "You should keep that in a sling but I know you won't." Her ankle is just a sprain and he eases the pain and swelling there.

"What happened?"

"I was in Jedha City looking for a pilot. It's gone. Krennic blew it up. With the Death Star."

He rocks back on his heels and stares at her, aghast. "The whole city?"

"I'd had a bad feeling about it when they pulled the garrison out and the destroyer. This thing appeared in the sky, like an eclipse. It was so big, it blocked out the sun, and then..."

Susan chokes back a sob. "The whole sky lit up and I ringed out. Maybe it was just Jedha City, maybe the whole planet. I don't know. We have to get a survey ship out there; there might be survivors."

"So it's real."

"And operational. I've got to get to Mon. And try and stop Draven and Andor from whatever murder they're plotting next."

Susan would only work with Bail Organa and Mon Mothma. She had a very low opinion of Rebel Intelligence leadership.

"I think Andor was pursuing the same lead you were. I read this morning that he'd also been sent to Jedha with Jyn Erso."

"If that's the case, they're dead now."

He gains his feet and offers his hand. She takes it and rises, then moves to a locker to restock her bag - rations, power packs, a spare blaster she hates using.

"I'll take you to your shuttle."

"No." Susan uncoils the bandage from her head and tosses the sling aside. "I ran into Luke, right after I got here. He saw me and insisted on escorting the old, crazy, bloody lady to the clinic. I think he thinks my partner beats me. I chased him off with a rumor of a sale on some salvaged parts at Tosche Station so he wouldn't see you."

Luke has the best of Anakin. He hopes he also doesn't have the worst of his father.

"He reminds me so much of my brother."

"Peter?"

She nods. "Ineffable goodness, inexhaustible charm, absolute idiot."

"I'll send a message to Bail and Mon. Going through all the relays, you may get to Yavin before it does."

"Just…"

"Yes, Susan, I will properly encode it."

She waits as he checks the surrounding area but there's nothing he senses in the Force that shouldn't be there.

"All clear."

He slides the door open for her and turns back around. The afternoon sun is blinding and, for a moment, it's as if nothing has changed, and Susan is as she has always been, the most beautiful woman he has ever known. Her goggles are still tangled in her hair, that nicely crafted bowcaster is slung over one shoulder, and her bag of meager but adequate supplies dangles over the other.

Obi-Wan knows he won't see her again.

"May the Force be with you, Susan."

"With all of us, I hope."

* * *

Susan is on Coruscant, deep undercover, when the statues to Palpatine fall. It takes a few months before she's ready, has the time, and can find anyone to help her. She thinks of asking Luke, but ultimately, it's Chewbacca who obliges, borrows a ship, and takes her to Tatooine.

She cleans out the garage and then Chewbacca flies her out to the plateau above the Dune Sea.

<<You never told Luke?>> he asks.

"You never told Han?"

Chewbacca, she has learned, is even better at keeping secrets than Artoo-Detoo.

The hut is barely standing - the roof and a wall are gone. It's hollowed out and empty, stripped of everything. Tuskens have been through it, and Luke and Boba Fett fought in it. There's nothing to sit on so she sits on the ground.

"Ben?"

She's long known that wasn't his real name and she'd like to mock him for picking such a ridiculous alias.

"I miss you," she says. There is silence, of course. Susan has been talking to the ghosts of those she's loved and lost for years. They never answer back.

Even if he is here, she wouldn't be able to see him.

"I'm leaving now. It's time. There's surely another world fighting a dreadful tyrant that needs a Queen who is a very good spy. If you are able to go to the Wood Between The Worlds, maybe I will see you there."

She turns and waves to Chewbacca. Then Susan puts her hand in her pocket and her fingers close around the yellow ring.


End file.
